Induction of Human Glioma Tumor in Sprague-Dawley Rats with Intact Immune System

Zahra ABDI1,Hossien ESKANDARY2,Seyed Noureddin NEMATOLLAHI-MAHANI2

1Department of Anatomy, Afzalipour School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran2Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran3Afzal Research Institute (NGO), Kerman, Iran4Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
DOI :
10.5137/1019-5149.JTN.17260-16.1
AIM: Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive brain tumor in humans. The median survival rate of patients is one year after the
diagnosis. So, development of an animal model is necessary for the advances in the research treatment of GBM. The aim of this
study was to investigate the capability of human glioma cells in inducing glioma tumors in rats with intact immune system.

MATERIAL and METHODS: U87 cells were implanted in the frontal lobe of rats without suppressing the immune system. We used
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Hematoxylin-Eosin (H&E) and Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining to assess characteristics of
tumor.

RESULTS: At the 10th and 14th days of tumor inoculation, MRI images contained the tumor areas in the brain. All tumor-bearing
rats developed tumors. The rats retained the morphology and histological characteristics of human glioma. Animals mimic GBM
characteristics, such as mitotic activity, invasion, neovascularization, necrosis and pseudopalisading cells. IHC staining revealed
tumor growth and progression in the tumor-bearing rats.

CONCLUSION: This model is a standard system for studying the tumor phenotype, genotype, and for evaluating the efficacy of
anti-cancer agents. It is a reliable, simple, inexpensive, and easily reproducible model, which may be a way for pre-clinical studies.